Dark Dawning (Totem Book 1)

by Christine Rains

  “That they tried to fucking kill me.” Lucky pressed a hand to his side. Almost healed though it was, it would leave a scar.

  “Not just tried to kill you. They hunted you. They kept up with you, which they shouldn’t have been able to do. These people have resources to help them. Thus they have money. Not that such a thing narrows down our already nonexistent list.” Ametta bent her head and pressed her knuckles to her lips as she tried to make sense of this. “Probably trophy hunters. Or monster hunters. Maybe using satellite tracking. Hm, yes. Likely. How close behind you were they when you managed to get to the farm?”

  “Really close.” Lucky replied through clenched teeth.

  “So they could have seen me calm you and guessed I was a shifter too. Followed us to my dad’s. They didn’t get their prize there either. They’re feeling disappointed, frustrated. They want to make a kill.” Think, think, think. Saskia was much better at strategy and Kinley at psychology, but Ametta knew about desire. Nothing stopped her when she wanted something. And these bastards wanted shifters. Did it matter which kind?

  Oh, now there was the question. Her dad mentioned a wolf being taken. So it wasn’t just bears. If it didn’t matter which kind of shifter they bagged, then they could move on to new prey. Easier prey. One to momentarily sate their desire.

  “Oh shit.” If Ametta hadn’t been wearing her seatbelt, she would have leapt out of her seat. “Turn around, turn around! Go to the Meyers’ farm.”

  Lucky slammed on the brakes. “Wait. What?”

  “Go to the farm. They’ve been to the farm. The Meyers have a herd of over seventy shifters. On their land, they change back and forth all the time.” When he continued to stare at her, she groaned and wound her hands in her short hair, pulling. “Easy prey.”

  “Fuck.” Lucky threw the car into reverse and sped south. If they were really lucky, Azarius and Saskia were hounding the hunters and keeping the farmers from getting killed. But since they’d been gone so long, she didn’t think so. She could only hope they got there in time to save lives.

  “Everything’s been quiet since you left.” Goren’s words sounded more an accusation than a comment. He stood on the stairs of his massive porch with several other men regarding Ametta and Lucky with a flat stare.

  Sure it was wonderful news no one had died, but it still made Ametta want to snap at him. She kept her hands by her sides, claws to herself. “We’re concerned for you and your herd. The hunters that shot Lucky might not only be looking for bear. Other shifters have gone missing this year.”

  Goren’s brows furrowed as he shook his head. “No one hunts us.”

  “We’re branded like any other cattle. We’re not wild game.” One of the adult sons scoffed, arms crossed, as he stood with his father along with three others.

  Whether they felt threatened by Lucky’s return, she didn’t care. He wasn’t at the farm to harm them. They were there to help. And branding? Ametta shuddered. Sometimes what shifters did in their groups was just sadistic.

  “We understand—” Ametta’s voice started to tighten.

  Lucky interrupted. “It’s okay. These men have everything under control here. We delivered the news, told them to be on the lookout. I’m sure everyone’s safe and accounted for. Let’s not take up any more of their time. They’ve got a farm to run.”

  Goren nodded once with a pleased harrumph.

  “But they have to know how dangerous these people are.” Ametta couldn’t believe it. How could any of them just brush this off? “They hunted you for over a day, shot you and my dad. I didn’t suggest we come here on a whim.”

  Two of the young men behind Goren exchanged whispered words. The one with larger nostrils than his father leaned forward and said quietly, “We haven’t seen Paul since early this morning.”

  Goren frowned. “Better give his cell a call.”

  The other guy was already doing so.

  A roiling grew in Ametta’s belly. This was a herd. No one lost track of anyone in a group like this, especially the eldest son like Paul. If they were too late… No, they couldn’t be too late. Paul just got busy with something. Maybe his tractor broke down or he was mending a fence.

  Lucky placed a hand on her lower back. The tension in his body was as clear to her as her own.

  “No answer.” The young bull swallowed hard and looked to his father.

  Ametta’s breath caught in her throat. She didn’t want to be right.

  Goren leapt off the porch and headed straight to the barn. “He was supposed to be out in the northwest field. Grab the guns, follow on the ATVs.”

  The Meyers ran to the barn. Lucky turned to Ametta and pointed at her. “Stay here.”

  She gaped at him as he took off to the barn too. No way. She wasn’t going to be pushed aside. If the hunters were near, she would rip their heads off. They almost took her father from her. She was not going to let that go unanswered.

  Ametta raced after them. Ahead of her, Goren yanked off his boots and undid his belt. He started to undress, but clearly it wasn’t fast enough for him. He shifted into his animal form, shreds of clothes flying in all directions. He dashed northward with a great snorting battle call.

  Goren was a big man, but as a bull, he was a giant. A shifter’s animal tended to be bigger than their natural counterparts. And a bull wasn’t a small creature. Goren reminded her of a bulldozer. Solid, broad, and all power. The brand was clear on his left hip: a stylized M with an arrow head off the bottom of the first line.

  The other men had shotguns and were on the ATVs when Ametta ran into the barn. Lucky straddled one of the machines and revved it as he turned it on. He glared at her. “Go back to the house.”

  Without pausing, Ametta hopped on the back of his ATV. If he wanted her to stay back in the house with the other women, he had another thing coming. Just let him try. She gripped his hips and lifted her feet onto the rear footrest.

  Lucky growled, turning as if he might give her a fight. The Meyers sped off with a roar of motors and dust.

  “Dammit. Hold on tight.” Lucky didn’t give her any more warning. He hit the gas. She jerked back at the force of acceleration, and they were halfway across the barnyard before she straightened herself.

  Part of her prayed it was nothing. But her other half wanted it to be the hunters. She wanted to tear them limb from limb. She didn’t care that the Black Shamans were meant to take care of these things. The bastards had almost killed her dad.

  Lucky followed the other men. His thick hair waved like a furious fireball around his head. The clothes he wore made him smell like home, but she found no comfort in it at the moment.

  Heading up a hill, Ametta wrapped her arms tighter around him to hold on. She couldn’t reach all the way around his barrel chest. He was solid. More so than any man she had ever pressed herself against. But that list she could count out on one hand. Two fingers, actually. She was a woman of high expectations and fine taste, after all.

  Flying into a huge pasture, the ATVs slowed. Nothing. No signs of anyone else. No tractor or fences or even birds in the sky.

  Sniffing and huffing, Goren pawed at the ground. He spun toward the woods in the west and charged.

  No one hesitated. The ATVs zoomed after the bull and into the trees.

  Something tickled Ametta’s nose under the smell of Lucky and gasoline. Blood.

  No.

  She screamed silently, needing him to go faster, but they slowed as the forest grew thicker. Lucky followed one of the Meyers. There was no discernible path except what Goren had trampled.

  A gunshot blasted over the sound of revving engines.

  Lucky skidded to a stop. “Get off! Go back to the house.”

  No. Not that manly crap again. Ametta slid off the ATV and ran toward the direction Goren bellowed from.

  Behind her, Lucky swore and left the machine to follow her. “Don’t you do anything stupid!”

  “Same to you!” Ametta ducked under tree limbs and dashed around thic
k trunks.

  The Meyers had abandoned their ATVs and shouted to their father. The sharp coppery scent of blood hit her hard. Her steps faltered, and Lucky caught up to her, moving to run in front of her.

  The woods opened up into a clearing where the Meyers stood with guns at the ready. Goren stumbled, trying to stand, but blood poured out his right front leg. He frothed at the mouth and let out a thundering cry.

  Several big rocks piled in the clearing. One was nearly flat on the top. Perhaps, under different circumstances, she’d think it a perfect place to sun herself. Not now. It was awash with blood.

  Ametta covered her mouth. Not at the fear of throwing up, but at the horror of the scene.

  A man dressed in camouflage stood over the shifter’s corpse. He’d been skinning the bull. And he’d almost finished the job.

  The man had a gun. A big one. The Meyers had their shotguns pointed at him and shouted at him to drop his weapon and step away.

  That was the bastard who shot her father. The one who tried to kill Lucky.

  Besides her, Lucky snarled as he stepped back a few feet. Before she could tell him not to do it, he shifted. Tattered clothes flew into the trees as he roared.

  The Meyers crouched as if Lucky might take a swing at them, but they didn’t run nor did they point their guns at him. An improvement over last time.

  Ametta’s body itched. Her bear pounded on her chest, demanding release. Her rage, sorrow, need for justice. She couldn’t let this bastard get away with what he’d done.

  No. No shifting. Maybe as a human she could convince the guy to put his weapon down before someone else got shot. Oh, the hunter would be gunned down himself, but he might take at least one of them with him.

  Lucky and Goren weren’t being reasonable. And Goren’s sons had their fingers on the triggers. It was up to her.

  “Put down the gun. Put it down and they won’t shoot you.” Ametta wasn’t certain about that fact, but she stepped forward, holding up her hands.

  Lucky growled behind her. Goren fell onto his side. He was losing a lot of blood. They needed to end this fast to get him help. It was too late for Paul, but no one else had to die.

  Except the hunter.

  Wait. It was just the man. Where was his partner?

  Ametta’s eyes searched the trees. Was she waiting to ambush them? Her heart pounded in her chest. A golden eagle circled overhead. Obviously it smelled the fresh kill. But there was no one else she could sense. Not even a whiff of a woman nearby.

  But that was the trick with these hunters, wasn’t it? Not even Azarius could properly track them.

  She turned back to the man. Blood had soaked into his clothes causing them to cling to his body. He was built big like Lucky. Strong. Kind of good looking with a longish face. And wary. He wasn’t shaking, though. Faced with a furious bull, three shotguns, and a Kodiak, he still stood over his kill.

  Most people might call that stupid. But he wasn’t stupid.

  He was waiting for something. Someone. His partner.

  “Put down the gun or I will tell them to shoot.” This needed to end fast. Ametta couldn’t let him get away.

  The hunter smiled and aimed his gun at her. Lucky roared and shoved her to the side.

  Ametta didn’t have time to protest. The eagle dove from the sky, and everyone started firing.

  She flattened herself on the ground. A bullet buried itself in the dirt five inches from her head. Lucky tore over the rocks toward the hunter.

  Screaming for him to stop, Ametta turned in time to see the enormous eagle snatch Paul’s head by the horns. It took off with a mighty flap. The bull’s hide billowed in the wind like a gory cape. The skinned body was left behind.

  No animal would dive into a battle like this, no matter how tempting the meal. That bird had to be a shifter. The hunter’s partner was an eagle shifter! That’s how they managed to escape without leaving a trail.

  The bloodied man chucked his gun at Lucky, and as the Kodiak swung his paw at him, he jumped down behind the rock out of sight. The eagle couldn’t save him. She was gone with the head. They had the bastard now!

  Lucky leapt over the bloody remains and roared. Ametta and two of the Meyers scrambled up the rocks. The third son hurried to his father, removing his shirt and pressing it to the wound.

  Ametta came to Lucky’s side. Why wasn’t he down there tearing the hunter apart? She had no doubt he wanted to. Perhaps the guy was hurt, and Lucky was allowing the Meyers to divvy out the justice for the murder of their brother.

  Lucky howled again.

  She frowned. That was not a victory cry.

  Leaning over the edge of the rocks beside the Kodiak, she looked down ten feet to see nothing.

  The hunter had vanished.

  “But how can the hunter just disappear like that? Even with magic, it would take more time than a blink of an eye.” Kinley paced as she spoke. Not that Ametta could see her as they were talking on the phone, but that’s what her sister would do. There was a groove in the hardwood floor at the cabin from her pacing.

  “I don’t know. Lucky knew his scent. It was the same hunter who shot him. I have his scent now too. But it just disappeared. We thoroughly checked over the spot. The eagle had her talons full of bull, so she couldn’t have taken him. Speaking of which, ask Dad if one of the missing shifters is a golden eagle. She might not be missing anymore.”

  Kinley put her on hold to go do so.

  Ametta leaned against the railing of the porch. She watched members of the Meyers’ herd come and go from the barn. They’d gotten Goren back in time for the bullet to be removed and the wound stitched. With a few donations of blood from his sons, Goren was already complaining about the fuss being made over him.

  Leanne and several women wailed inside the house. They would mourn until the next birth. It was the way of their herd.

  Ametta’s heart beat heavily. If only she had figured out what the hunters wanted earlier, she might have prevented this. She’d brought the hunters to her father’s house, too, by taking Lucky there. No more. These bastards had to be stopped.

  Kinley came back on the line. “Yes. Dad says one of the first was an eagle. There’s the wolf, a moose, and a few others he’s not certain about.”

  “And now they have a bull trophy.” Bile rose in her throat. Why did she think she could try to talk to the hunter? There was no reasoning with someone like that. And one of their own kind worked with him. Why? “Can you figure out if there’s any type of magic that could make the guy vanish like that? Maybe get Dad to contact Sedge since we can’t find Azarius and Saskia.”

  “He already did,” Kinley stated. “As for the magic, it might have been something preplanned. Like a portkey.”

  “This isn’t the Harry Potter world, Kin.” Ametta ran her free hand through her hair. “Do some research. I don’t want the bastard to be able to do it again. Does Dad know the name of the eagle shifter? Maybe she has family or a husband, someone I can talk to that might lead us to her.”

  “Already asked. Avery Hunt. She lives in Anchorage and manages a restaurant. I’ll text you the address.”

  “Thanks. I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

  “You mean if we find anything.” Lucky’s voice made Ametta jump and nearly drop her cell.

  “Fuck. Don’t do that.” Ametta growled. Did she actually feel that rumble in her chest? She shot him a hard look. No way. She had more control than that. “I’ll call you later, Kin. Bye.”

  Ending the call, she folded her arms. “You need to stay here and help them protect—”

  “Oh please. They have a small army, and every one of them is armed.” Lucky marched toward her car. He wore somebody’s clothes. Red flannel shirt and jeans that hugged his ass just right. “Don’t think you can get rid of me that easily, hot stuff.”

  “Stop calling me that.” Ametta sped ahead of him to reach the driver’s side first. “I’m driving. I need to stop by my place. Get cleaned up and put on my ow
n clothes. I can drop you off at the mall. Surely you want some clothes too.”

  Lucky chuckled as he hopped in on the passenger’s side. “I would if I had my wallet. No credit cards. Unless you want to take me shopping and buy me something pretty.”

  Ametta sat down and turned to glare at him. She wasn’t even going to reply. Putting her seat back up and adjusting her mirrors, she focused on the road and zoomed away from the farm. Lucky flipped on the radio and turned it to a classic rock station. At least he was wise enough to know when not to push it.

  The ride calmed her, and being back in the city took her away from the nightmare of the past three days. Most Alaskans thought Anchorage bustled with activity, and compared to the rest of the state, it did. Yet it had nowhere near the energy of bigger cities around the world. That’s what she wanted: the bustle times a thousand.

  Ametta drove to the north side of town. Her townhouse was in a new complex. A lot of young professionals lived in the neighborhood. It was hip and modern and made her feel like she wasn’t in Alaska.

  She parked and led Lucky into her home. Everything was in its place. The glass abstract sculpture caught the light just right from its table in the living room, and her coats hung from lightest to darkest in color in the foyer closet. The only appliance on the kitchen counters was a coffee maker.

  Nothing to mar the view of her unique counters or the various art pieces she picked for each space. The lines, colors, and patterns were all perfect. Immaculate. “Feel free to get yourself something to eat while I shower and change. I’m sorry I can’t give you a tour. I want to get to the restaurant as soon as possible.”

  Lucky strolled into the living room. It wasn’t a large space, but it was open to the galley kitchen and dining room. He made the place look even smaller. “Very nice. You decorated it all yourself?”

  Ametta untied her hiking boots and slid them off. “Yes. I use it in my portfolio.”